For example, several tens of millions of neurons are distributed in a brain of a human that is a living body, and as results of chemical reactions which occur in the respective cells, every emotion including joy, anger, grief and pleasure and every action are dominated. It is a central theme of the brain research to examine, in the cellular level, what kind of chemical reactions occur in which region of the brain.
The chemical reactions in the brain cells are examined in such a manner that, in order to see the chemical reactions concerned, a test reagent is dropped onto a tissue sample, for example, sliced brain tissues of an animal or the like, and is caused to react with the tissue sample, and a state of a relevant reaction portion is seen.
At a first measurement in measuring work for this reaction portion, the sliced brain tissues are placed on a stage, and a region of the brain cells is measured one point by one point while moving the stage without using the test reagent for the brain cells. When the measurement is completed, this stage is returned to an original position thereof.
Next, at a second measurement, while moving the stage one more time with use of the test reagent for the brain cells, the same spot in the reaction region of the brain cells, which is measured at the first measurement, is measured one point by one point. In this way, measured values on the spot of such a brain cell region without using the test reagent and measured values on the spot of the brain cell region with use of the test reagent are compared with each other for examination.
Patent Literature 1 discloses a tissue sample analysis device that performs such measurement.
In the tissue sample analysis device of Patent Literature 1, a photomultiplier is mounted on a camera mount of a large microscope, and a fluorescence emitted from a region of a very small point (for example, with a diameter of several tens of micrometers) of a tissue sample is focused by a pinhole, and is measured in a photometric manner by using a camera of the large microscope and the photomultiplier.
Next, photometric values of all the regions of the tissue sample are collected while moving the stage, and the obtained photometric value data is constructed on a coordinate, whereby the tissue sample analysis device creates a quantitative distribution map of a substance.
In this tissue sample analysis device, when the first measurement is completed and the second measurement is started, the stage is returned to such an original point. When a position display control unit of the tissue sample analysis device compares position information on a first set position of the stage and a position information on a second set position of the stage with each other, and determines that there is no difference between the position information on the first set position of the stage and the position information on the second set position of the stage, then the position display control unit regards such second stage-set position information as such first stage-set position information, and holds the position information on the first set position of the stage as it is.
Meanwhile, when the position display control unit of the tissue sample analysis device determines that there is a difference between the position information on the first set position of the stage and the position information on the second set position of the stage, then the position display control unit allows screen display of the position information about the first set position of the stage.